There are many different types of electrical cordsets that are used in a wide abundance of differing environments and applications. One rather specialized environment for such cordsets is, however, where there is a high pressure application or hostile environment. An example of such an application is in the use of a position sensor where a sensor is located within a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder, typically used with outdoor heavy construction equipment, to sense the position of a piston moving within the cylinder. Such sensors are subjected to the high pressures internal of the cylinder and the signals from that internal sensor must be transmitted to a control system that provides power to the sensor while receiving the sensed signals from that sensor to determine the position of the piston within the cylinder. The sensor itself is in a very hostile environment as is the particular heavy construction equipment and, therefore, it is mandatory that a cordset connecting the sensor within that environment to the control system also be capable of withstanding the external environment while reliably transmitting the electrical signals.
One such sensor used in that environment is shown and described in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/793,218 entitled “PRECISION SENSOR FOR A HYDRAULIC CYLINDER” and which, in turn, is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,061, issued on May 22, 2001, entitled “PRECISION SENSOR FOR A HYDRAULIC CYLINDER” and which was based upon U.S. Provisional application 60/104,866 filed on Oct. 20, 1998 and the disclosure of all of the foregoing applications and issued U.S. patent are hereby incorporated into this specification by reference.
In the aforedescribed patent application, there is a high pressure sensor connector having various male conductive pins that is provided at the sensor and sealed within the cylinder wall. It is necessary to have a cordset to electrically connect that sensor connector to the control system that is located external of the hydraulic component so that the signals from the sensor can be reliably transmitted between that sensor and the control system that both provides power to the sensor and receives the position sensing signals from the sensor to interpret and use those signals in the operation and control of the equipment.
One of the difficulties with such systems, therefore, is the necessity to have a reliable and rugged electrical connection between that sensor that is located within the hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder and the control system that is located external of the cylinder. The connection must be secure and often must conform to small physical space constraints and yet be able to withstand the rather hostile environment that is present with such equipment.
Further problems arise in that the electrical connection must be designed to minimize the effects of electromagnetic interference on the signals passing through the cordset as well as those previously mentioned conditions of weather, chemicals, extreme temperatures and damage due to contact with other objects in the work environment.
As a further consideration, the electrical connection or cordsets must be economical to produce as they are used in a cost-competitive industry and therefore must be able to fulfill all of the aforedescribed requirements while still being inexpensive to manufacture.
One additional consideration in the providing of a cordset to the aforedescribed application is that there needs to be certain signal conditioning circuitry to alter or condition the signals passing through the cordset and, while one solution could be to locate such circuitry on or within the equipment itself, it would be advantageous if the particular signal conditioning circuitry be a part of the cordset that would be easy to replace when necessary and in a less hostile environment.